


Zero Day

by Serie11



Series: Femslash February 2018 [25]
Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Dark, F/F, Heavy Angst, Pre-Apocalypse, Pre-Battle of Meridian, Pre-Canon, Reincarnation, Stupid damn ted faro messing things up, but can you really blame them for questioning everything at the end of the world
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-27
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2019-03-24 14:39:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13813293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serie11/pseuds/Serie11
Summary: Elisabet was hunched over her computer, eyes tracking the new data that was coming in. APOLLO was coming along, and Samina’s newest update had temporarily calmed the now ever present panic inside her. Maybe they would finish on time. Maybe humanity would have a chance, sometime in the far flung future. Maybe she could actually kind of finish this project, her most important one yet.Tomorrow was zero day.No one knows when HADES will come. It could be tomorrow, or in a month, or a year. The only thing that they can do now is wait, and be prepared. Aloy doesn’t know if it will be enough. If the Faro robots are awakened again, all of Elisabet’s work will have been for nothing. Aloy can’t stand that. She won’t let Project: Zero Dawn have been completed in vain. She won’t let the world end: not again.





	Zero Day

 

Elisabet was hunched over her computer, eyes tracking the new data that was coming in. APOLLO was coming along, and Samina’s newest update had temporarily calmed the now ever present panic inside her. Maybe they would finish on time. Maybe humanity would have a chance, sometime in the far flung future. Maybe she could actually kind of finish this project, her most important one yet.

Tomorrow was zero day.

Elisabet clenched her jaw and typed in another few lines of code. She should check her emails, see how the other projects were doing. HADES was ironically the only one on schedule – even _ahead_ of schedule, which Elisabet almost hated. But Tate was good at his job, even if he couldn’t communicate like a regular person to save his life. No, she couldn’t look at more updates and more headaches right now – she needed to _work_ now. GAIA was humming along beside her, and Elisabet took what comfort she could in that. The AI was an AI – GAIA was writing her own code to go alongside Elisabet’s and together they were working on the project far faster than Elisabet could have done it alone. GAIA could run projections and outcomes and fix small issues before Elisabet even knew that there were issues to begin with. Sometimes she could hardly believe that she’d managed to create an actual AI, and it was because of Ted fucking Faro. Damn him to the depths of hell.

“Miss Ebadji is at your door, Elisabet.”

GAIA could also multitask and focus on numerous things at once, something that Elisabet had been starting to struggle with over the last few weeks. It was probably the exhaustion. She was pushing herself every minute of every day, and she couldn’t let herself rest, not when she was overseeing more projects than she ever had in her entire life, and _all_ were critically important.

“Tell her I’m busy, please.” She had work to do. She couldn’t put it aside for a moment, and she didn’t think that Samina was here to discuss APOLLO.

“Elisabet, you have worked on this piece of code for the last ten hours,” GAIA said. “Not moving from a desk in this time can result in many health risks, including –”

“My health doesn’t matter,” Elisabet said, gritting her teeth. “I know that I shouldn’t be here, doing this, but what’s the alternative? I need to keep working. There’s no future for me but this bunker, anyway. And even if you’re functionally complete, there’s still a lot of issues that we need to iron out. You know that.”

“I also know that humans require rest and leisure activities to function at optimum capacity,” GAIA said coolly. “I need you at your best, Elisabet. Please, join Miss Ebadji for an hour or two. The work will still be here when you come back.”

Elisabet rubbed at her eyes, feeling the gunk that had accumulated there. She _did_ feel like shit, but – the work was all that mattered. Nothing could get in the way of the work. Even herself.

“Fine,” she bit out. “Just – keep working on these numbers, and be ready to give me an update when I come back.”

“Yes, Elisabet,” GAIA said. It felt like a farewell, which was stupid – Elisabet could contact GAIA at any time, at any place. She was wired into Elisabet’s focus, to see and hear all that Elisabet saw and heard. It was a way of giving her interaction, even when no one was specifically talking to her. GAIA had some cores monitoring the channel at all times, and Elisabet only needed to speak to hear GAIA’s voice resound comfortingly in her ear.

She opened her door to find Samina standing there patiently. “What is it?” Elisabet asked, rubbing a hand over the back of her neck. She’d met Samina before everything, and they’d talked over coffee a few times. Elisabet had kind of been thinking about asking her on a date, but now, with everything as it was, she could hardly put another demand on the other woman. They both deserved some relaxation, and Elisabet didn’t want to distract her if that wasn’t what Samina wanted.

“GAIA told me that we both needed a break from work,” Samina said quietly. “Do you want to go on a walk with me?”

The pure ridiculousness of the question stuck in Elisabet’s throat for a few seconds before she can respond. “I’d love to,” she said, choked. Samina’s eyes were sad in a way that told Elisabet that she understood. She knew what tomorrow was as well – they all did.

Soon, they would be among the very last life on earth.

Samina linked her arm through Elisabet’s and together they walked down the corridor together. There wasn’t exactly much space for them to move – the compound was small and compact and every pace served a purpose. Even the corridors were small, to be used for travel only. That was their purpose. There was no need to have a lot of space around them as they walked. That was a luxury that human kind couldn’t afford anymore. It meant that Samina and Elisabet had to walk with their sides pressed together, but Elisabet didn’t think either of them minded overly much.

Elisabet stared at her feet as they walk – GAIA could take her away from her workstation, but she couldn’t stop Elisabet from thinking. Samina is quiet as well. Elisabet might be imagining it, but the entire mood of the bunker seemed sombre – the end of one era was here. Elisabet wondered if this was what it felt like, when the Mesozoic Era was ending, when the asteroid was falling on the dinosaurs. Could they tell that something so terrible was about to happen? Could they tell that most of life was about to be wiped out?

This extinction event may be sudden and man made, but it’s still the most extreme of any that has happened. Without their work here, all life would have been extinguished on earth, with no chance of recovery, since all the Faro robots would simply be waiting for any new life to eat.

“It is a sad day, but that does not mean that there isn’t hope,” Samina said quietly. Elisabet sighed.

“Am I that transparent?”

The corner of Samina’s mouth twitched. “Yes, Elisabet. I think that at the present moment, we are all that transparent.” She shook her head. “All the final activity on APOLLO has been quiet. I should suspect that it the same, across all the projects.”

“Do you think we’ve done enough?” Elisabet asked, voice cracking. She didn’t feel like she’d done enough. She felt like a failure – every species that they hadn’t harvested had struck her like a bullet to the gut. If only she’d been faster, better, smarter. Thinking of all the death made her sick.

“We have done all that we can,” Samina said softly. “We have given earth a chance. And I think GAIA has pretty good odds on her side.”

Elisabet stopped in the middle of the corridor. “I hope so,” she said, voice hollow. “In the future, I hope that there will be life again. That humanity will get another chance, to prove that this is not all that we are.”

“An accident allowed this to happen,” Samina pointed out. “And our act of defiance against it has hardly been an accident.”

“You like to see the best in people,” Elisabet said. This wasn’t an _accident._ Ted’s company had been building robots that could end life, specifically. Oh, and they made them – they just made them a little too well. “Sometimes I feel like I can only see the flaws.”

“You are a fixer, Elisabet,” Samina told her. “You find the flaws in everything you see because you want to make it better. You are a good person, I know it.”

Elisabet doesn’t feel like a good person. “Thank you,” she said anyway, because that’s not something you just ignore.  

Samina put a hand on her shoulder. “Elisabet, you are the heart of this project. Every part of it reflects you. If GAIA ends up saving the world – it will be because _you_ facilitated it. Your every action saves the world: and through that, it saves each and every one of us.” Samina’s eyes shine in the artificial light of the corridor – Elisabet drunkenly thinks that it’s one of the most beautiful things she’s ever seen.

“Thank you,” she said again. Her voice breaks on the words.

Samina pulled her in and Elisabet went willingly – she could have this, at least, at the end of the world.

* * *

 

Aloy sits at the entrance to the tent and thinks.

The Nora came to Meridian just for her. The Carja are mobilising just for her. Petra and Erend, the only two Oseram she really knows, are here for her.

She can still see the Spire above them. It blocks out the stars.

She tries not to think of it as an imposing figure, or of something to be afraid of, even though it has the capacity to end the world. She can’t imagine why GAIA hadn’t taken the towers down after they’d been used. Perhaps she’d thought that they might be useful in the future? Perhaps she used them in other ways, ways that didn’t have anything to do with their original purpose. Even so, Aloy can understand why the Spire makes the Nora feel uneasy. Even with all her knowledge, Aloy sometimes has trouble looking at it.

Who knew that such a thing could have such a devastating purpose?

No one knows when HADES will come. It could be tomorrow, or in a month, or a year. The only thing that they can do now is wait, and be prepared. Aloy doesn’t know if it will be enough. If the Faro robots are awakened again, all of Elisabet’s work will have been for nothing. Aloy can’t stand that. She won’t let Project: Zero Dawn have been completed in vain. She won’t let the world end: not again.

A movement, and Vala sits down beside her. “How are you holding up?” she asks, and Aloy snorts.

“What a question,” she says, and Vala shakes her head.

“I know,” she says, and – she _does_ know. There is a task before them that astounds Aloy with its immensity. Vala knows the odds of them succeeding, but she’s still here. Still by Aloy’s side.

“So?”

Aloy sighs. “Physically, fine. Mentally…” She trails off, waving a hand in the air. “How fine can any of us be, until this is over?”

Vala sucks in a deep breath. “We’re all here, and we’re all doing what we can. We can’t ask ourselves any more than that.”

“It doesn’t feel like enough,” Aloy says, staring into the distance because she doesn’t want to see the look on Vala’s face at that moment. “Nothing will feel like enough. I don’t know if we can do this, Vala.”

Vala grabs her hand, and Aloy closes her eyes. Vala’s hand is calloused with work, but warm, and strong. It’s a comfort that Aloy feels like she shouldn’t allow herself. There is only duty, until this is done – that is what she’d been made for. That is what she has to do.

“Look at everyone you’ve gathered here,” Vala says. “The Nora, those noisy Oseram, the Carja hunters and people. That’s _you_ , Aloy. Without you, none of this could have been possible. HADES would have steamrolled Meridian, and would have killed the world. With you, we have a fighting chance. And looking at what we’ve got,” she tugged Aloy’s hand, and Aloy reluctantly opens her eyes. She can’t really see Vala in the darkness, but she can imagine her – eyes wide and earnest and determined, to make Aloy see things the way that she did. “We’ve got a pretty good chance. A good chance at winning.”

“Against the Eclipse,” Aloy says, voice bitter. “People, who’ve been swayed to HADES’s side.”

“They’ve been deceived,” Vala says, voice compassionate.

“You’re a better person than me,” Aloy says, voice beginning to crack. _Don’t cry._ “You always see the best in people.”

“Just because I see the best doesn’t mean I don’t prepare for the worst,” Vala points out. “And things might not be the way that I want them to be. Doesn’t mean that I leave it like that, though – I always act to change things for the better.”

Aloy manages to laugh. “And stick your nose in where it’s not wanted, every time.”

“Not every time,” Vala huffs. “But what I’m trying to say is, this is just another situation where we can act, Aloy. Another way that we can change things for the better. Everyone here is here because of you – you’re the soul of our defence. I know that you’re strong enough to handle it.”

Aloy squeezes her eyes shut, but the tears fall anyway. “You’re a good person, Vala.”

Vala kisses her cheek softly. “I think the person who brought us all together like this is pretty good, too.”

Aloy turns so that she can kiss her lips. She can have this, at least, at the end of the world.

**Author's Note:**

> Today's prompt was: reincarnation. Tbh it was just an excuse to finally write something about Elisabet...


End file.
